Automotive Trends

      The demise of Mercury has had the auto world considering what went wrong with Ford’s mid-priced brand. While we recently shared our suggestions on which vehicles most contributed to Mercury’s demise, there were plenty of vehicles in the brand’s history that are worth celebrating. Never having owned a Mercury, one of my earliest tastes of automotive freedom was experienced from the passenger seat of a ’76 Montego that my high school buddy drove. The car had a power dome hood that stretched a good six feet ahead of the windshield, a one piece bench seat, AM radio, and the requisite full vinyl top – complete with opera windows. Though ragged and worn, that behemoth was our transportation many a Saturday night out with the guys. That Mercury dripped character from chromed bumper to chromed bumper. Like the Montego, Mercury produced several memorable cars  over the years. Had Ford produced more vehicles like these, perhaps Mercury’s fate would have been different. Read more…

     Since the mid-1990s rumors of the demise of the Ford Crown Victoria and Mercury Grand Marquis twins have perpetuated through the automotive press. GM’s relatively unexpected discontinuation of the Caprice in 1996 gave extra boost to the Crown Vic’s sales. Unfortunately, with no competition Ford’s Panther platform soldiered on year after year with changes that were often transparent to their aging target audience. Read more…